The Big Nic Bitcrushed my Braaaaaains to Actual S!n@t.
When an artifact of pure, probably unparalleled, incandescent beauty finds its way into my life, a rare event indeed, I fall upon it like a starving, enraged, psychopathic bear and don't let go until I've engorged my stomach in its wondrous juices and festooned my bedchamber in its shimmering entrails.
Such a moment arrived as I hit play on the second track of The Big Nic's Soundtrack to "Zombies" a game by The Big Nic.
Now if you think this is unsubstantiated hyperbole or cynical trash talk, I beg to severely, violently, differ.
Try it: http://bignic.bandcamp.com/album/zombies-soundtrack
To be clear:
To be even more actually clear: This soundtrack comes off of a game (or possibly a game comes off of this soundtrack), elevating both mediums to unrelentingly, vertiginous, stratospheric heights. Tastes may differ, but I think we can agree that this world is not treated to enough lovingly, lushly and painstakingly produced game music. And, at the very least, Zombies the Soundtrack is a remarkable piece of work and stunning achievement.
Thanks The Big Nic.
Such a moment arrived as I hit play on the second track of The Big Nic's Soundtrack to "Zombies" a game by The Big Nic.
Now if you think this is unsubstantiated hyperbole or cynical trash talk, I beg to severely, violently, differ.
Try it: http://bignic.bandcamp.com/album/zombies-soundtrack
To be clear:
I am going to say: Yes. It's this.Jack Handy said:"Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful, beautiful sunset? And he's carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he's carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you're drunk."
To be even more actually clear: This soundtrack comes off of a game (or possibly a game comes off of this soundtrack), elevating both mediums to unrelentingly, vertiginous, stratospheric heights. Tastes may differ, but I think we can agree that this world is not treated to enough lovingly, lushly and painstakingly produced game music. And, at the very least, Zombies the Soundtrack is a remarkable piece of work and stunning achievement.
Thanks The Big Nic.
Thanked by 1Merrik
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And now for something completely different!
This is the theme for Civ 4, and also the first song written for a game to win a (two!) grammy.
So the dude who wrote composed this piece, Christopher Tin, is a god damn genius. The song comes off the album Calling All Dawns (check it out, 12 tracks, 12 languages, absolutely beautiful.)
His latest projects? Well after putting Renaissance and Romantic era poetry to phat electronic beats, he is now working on music for the new Karateka game. ^ This
While we're putting out music: ever heard of Nier? BEST. SOUNDTRACK. EVER. (it's not chiptune)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/nier-gestalt-nier-replicant/id366643025
If we're talking epic soundtracks, then Baldur's Gate really MUST be mentioned:
For just wholehearted beauty I was really impressed by Journey... (and of course the scoring in that game is well beyond perfect)
But really, if we're being super super super serious, everyone one of us knows, deep in our manly manly hearts, if we were to honestly admit it, while also not ashamed, and to stand for what is right and just, that no work of man deserves as much praise as the Descent 2 Soundtrack:
Some games benefit so greatly from the work of their musicians. It amazes me how secondary-to-game-production game-music-production is often treated.
@ShadowBlade The Unreal 1 soundtrack will forever be the high water mark!
3:30 hours of glorious sonic ambrosia :P
(smiley face)
The best retaliation shot I have is this!
Dammit, now I need to go play that game again :(
(Although the way Toys For Bob achieved that Soundtrack is an interesting story in itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control_II#Development )
That said, to counter the manliness and grooving industrial brilliance of Rob Zombie's Quake 2 soundtrack I answer with this! Dimmu Borgir's theme to Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet!
(Which coincidentally is a game arguably about black ships filling the sky).
I'll throw in some Planescape Torment stuff because I like the choice of instruments. Pipes and, uh, percussion and shit. Um. Noises.
I'd like to see more good MIDI-era examples here, but I'm struggling to retrieve the ones I have in mind right now.
Anyway, if you so desire, Doom 1/2:
Some Midi stuff
And my other favourite theme song
Deus Ex, yeah, definitely (the Human Revolution music is superb.)
So, I've jumped on this board and this thread 'cos I'm very curious about how SA gamedevs are sourcing & integrating music and sound - absolutely crucial elements that can really make or break a game. I may be slightly biased on that because I compose & produce music (professionally, in JHB). I'm also a gamer. I am very interested in adaptive music & which solutions are being implemented here. Also genuinely interested in seeing SA find a self-sustaining foothold in the industry & tapping its potential. If I can contribute to that: great! Anyone keen to discuss? Or know where to find those keen to discuss? :)
As far as sound and music on Desktop Dungeons is going, we got incredibly lucky and made some awesome connections at GDC in 2011. That led to Jordan Fehr doing our sound effects and a couple of weeks later Danny Baranowsky offered to do our music - so suddenly we had the Super Meat Boy sound team on our little game :) Danny's since brought game music legend Grant Kirkhope onboard (it's totally awesome how excited he was about that).
Our process is pretty simple: We write up explanations of what we need SFX and music-wise in our dev-wiki, then Jordan, Danny and Grant ask questions to make sure they have enough info before smacking out first versions. Jordan's generally spot on with our SFX, he consistently finds better timings for our animations and generally pushes us to make the game better to match the effects he produces. Danny and Grant are somehow ok with my uneducated ass giving them feedback on their music, it's working really well though - the game's sounding awesome.
We've worked with a couple of local non-game sound people before, that proved a little tricky, mainly because the expectations were so different. I strongly recommend collaborating with people via game jams (Global Game Jam coming up in January!) or by lobbing effects/tracks at people with prototypes up here that you like. That's generally the best way to get involved - heck, that's what DannyB did with us, even though he's friggen DannyB.
Cool story, getting those chaps on board. Would like to know more about technical specifics and such, but there's not much on that front that's a mystery or out-of-reach. Interesting comment about difficulties working with local designers. Thanks for the insights! I'll troll around these boards a little more when I can...they're looking very busy now!